One Civic Act

Last December, nine states, including Massachusetts, agreed to develop a program that would limit carbon emissions for the transportation sector in the region, using a cap and trade system. It’s called the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) and it will likely resemble the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) , which has governed over the electricity sector since More simply, what that means is that gasoline and diesel would be taxed at some point in the supply chain, and the price of that tax would be determined by an auction of allowances on the carbon that is embedded in those fuels. The devil is in the details, of course. Today, I attended a workshop on the TCI, hosted by the Georgetown Climate Center. It was an interesting workshop but what it really highlighted is how much work still needs to be done to make it happen.

I’ve had numerous posts about the Somerville Sustainability Tour . Well, the day has finally arrived! Today, I helped to make the Somerville Sustainability Tour happen. I started early morning, when I visited nine tour stops before the tour began, to drop off packets of material for the tour hosts. I then helped to setup one of the stops, a little-known solar farm in the heart of Davis Square, and helped to setup the climate coalition of Somerville’s tables at the after-party Bike Month Kick-off event. I then visited another eight stops during the tour to check in with the hosts, before returning to the after-party, where I said a few words of thanks to all the tour-goers. It was a pretty long day. Shout out to @laryu who spoke at the #SustainabilityTour at @AeronautBrewing today! He’s been a steady, active voice in the community about environmental issues and we are so humbled to have him on our team!! pic.twitter.com/exrB0lmmyk — Indivisible Somerville (@indivisiville) ...

I attended the Somerville Community Summit back in February, where the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and the Somerville Media Center (and others) convened community members to pitch stories that would help end the news desert in Somerville. Today, I attended a follow-up event, where I pitched an environment-focused media channel to BINJ and SMC and got to add my two cents to five other proposals brought by other community organizations. Today, I also did my weekly shift as a herring monitor, counting fish coming up the ladder at the Mystic Lakes dam once again.

The Somerville Sustainability Tour is in two days and there is a lot of material we need to distribute to the tour hosts. Today, I spent a few hours finalizing material and organizing folders for all of the hosts. I also delivered a couple of those folders to hosts.

Money from fossil fuel companies have corrupted our political system and blocked bold action on climate change. Fossil fuel companies spent more than $260 million in campaign contributions and lobbying Congress in the 2016 cycle. Many politicians have said they would no longer accept money from fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists. But not all of them. Today, I went to Rep. Katherine Clark’s office with a few other activists to ask her to sign the no fossil fuel money pledge .

The Somerville Sustainability Tour I’ve been working on is four days away. Today, I spent a few hours finishing a map for distribution to tour-goers, and drafting and finalizing language for different pieces of collateral on our website and social posts.

Earlier this year, Puma announced it was moving its North America headquarters to Somerville. They won’t move in until 2021 but they’re beginning to do some community outreach to understand how to be good neighbors. Today, I went over to Puma’s current offices with a group of other community members to talk about the issues facing Somerville and the things Puma might consider getting involved in.